4-18. AFLAC introduced the AFLAC duck in the U.S.

market to build brand awareness there. However, AFLAC’s brand awareness is high in Japan. Should AFLAC use the same advertising campaign in Japan as it does in the United States? Is there any value to having identical advertising in both markets? Having introduced the maneki neko duck in Japan, should it now introduce it in the U.S. market as well? Fifteen years ago, most Americans had never heard of AFLAC, a $26-billion insurance company based in Columbus, Georgia. Thanks to AFLAC’s mascot, this is no longer the case. The company’s attention-grabbing advertising campaign, which began in 2000, features a helpful but frustrated duck that fails to get people to acknowledge his presence or the company’s name. Nonetheless, the duck’s efforts appear to be paying off. According to advertising surveys, 94 percent of Americans are now aware of the AFLAC brand; more importantly, policies in force have risen more than 50 percent and annual premiums have more than doubled since the duck commercials began in the United States. And the AFLAC duck has done more than simply increase the company’s American sales. AFLAC now sells the duck on its website and donates the proceeds to a children’s cancer center in Atlanta. During the Christmas season, AFLAC teams up with a major department store chain to sell special-edition AFLAC holiday ducks. To date,

$3 million has been donated to 40 children’s hospitals around the country from their sale.